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Valve: Keep listening to your customers, keep listening to your developers
Regardless of what some developers may say about Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, the Left 4 Dead 2 developer remains steadfast in its belief that listening to customers and developers is the best way to stay on top of the game. Ars Technica spoke with Valve director of business development Jason Holtman before his keynote at the Montreal International Games Summit, and Holtman explained his company's one-two-punch plan of listening to Steam customers and developers for advice on running the operation. "They're actually usually far better predictors of success than we ever could be," he said. He was also quick to point out that, despite the cyclical claims that PC gaming is "dying," Steam has been enjoying strong digital sales for years. During his presentation in Montreal, he noted that Valve's games have doubling sales numbers (or more) when they're put on sale, with Team Fortress 2 sales having jumped by as much as 520 percent when the Sniper vs Spy update was released. With numbers like that to back up his claim, it's starting to make a lot more sense to us why developers were so happy to defend Steam last month.
Key Square Enix, Media Molecule, Valve, Maxis staff keynoting Montreal game summit
The keynote speaker lineup for the Montreal International Game Summit 09 has been announced, and, fittingly, it's an international bunch. In fact, the Canadian event, which runs November 16 and 17, will be kicked off by Square Enix prez Yoichi Wada.Other speakers announced include Paul Holden, lead architect at LittleBigPlanet dev Media Molecule; Chris Hecker, lead architect at EA Maxis; Valve's Jason Holtman, the bizdev exec who heads up Steam; and author slash NPR games contributor Heather Chaplin. It's Hecker who will wind up the event with a discussion titled, "Can video games be considered as cultural products in the same way as literature or theatre?" Yes, the "games as art debate" -- or at least one person's views on it.
